Jelal moved to Tiflis by swift marches, and thence farther to Ani; he attacked this old city and Kars also with its very strong fortress. Returning soon to Tiflis he made a long march to Abhasia, October, 1226, as it were to subdue it. This was merely a feint to rouse false security in Khelat. Ten days only did he stay in Abhasia and turned then with great speed toward Khelat, which he would have captured had not the commandant been advised two days earlier by his confidants who were serving in the suite of the Sultan. Jelal hurled his force on the city the day that he reached it; a second assault was made the day following. His troops took the outskirts which they pillaged, but were forced to withdraw from them. After some days of rest the assault was renewed, but resistance was so resolute that this plan was abandoned. The people knowing well the ferocity of Kwaresmians, and the deeds which they did in each captured city, resisted with desperate valor. Ashraf went to Damascus, moreover, and swore obedience to Moazzam, his brother, begging him meanwhile to stop Jelal from ruining Khelat, but Jelal remained till the cold and deep snow drove him from the place. Azerbaidjan also called him. A large horde of Turkmans were pillaging the people, and plundering caravans. The Sultan made a swift march and came on them suddenly, shutting off their retreat to the mountains. Surrounding the robbers he cut them to pieces. Their families and all the rich booty which they had taken fell to the Sultan who retired to Tebriz with his captives. The Kwaresmians had abandoned Tiflis for the winter, so the Georgians at Ani, Kars and other places united. They moved on Tiflis in a body and put to death all Mohammedans, and since they despaired of defending the city against Jelal they fired it. The Ismailians, that is, the Assassins of Persia, had just killed a general to whom the Sultan had given Gandja and the lands which went with it. To inflict vengeance for this act Jelal took fire and sword to the land of those death dealing sectaries. A division of Mongols meanwhile had moved westward toward Damegan. Against this force the Sultan marched swiftly; he repulsed and then hunted it for many days in succession. While Jelal on the east was thus occupied Hussam ud din Ali, Ashraf’s commander at Khelat, appeared in the west unexpectedly, invited to Azerbaidjan by those of the people who liked not the Sultan’s strange ways, and who were brought down to need by the greed of his warriors. Euzbeg’s former wife too was active. She had had her own way with her first husband. Fixed now to Jelal through marriage she could not endure the effacement that came from this union. She remembered the past and joining the people of Khoï took action. She invited Hussam to seize that whole region. He consented and took many places; that done, he marched back to Khelat, Jelal’s new, but dissatisfied, consort going with him.